I find they only help if you fall over at a slow rate. If you fall hard it will just move the pressure point and break your arm. The best plan of action is to learn not to put your hands out when falling. To do this I would literally practice falling. Make sure you fall back to your elbows or forward on your fists. Ride nice and slow then start your turn and keep lifting your edge till you wash out. After a few times it will become natural to your body not to reach out during a fall. Do not practice catching your edge just learn to always lift the edge to much and fall towards the hill compared to not enough and catching your edge. There are also some wrist guards with no plastic piece that can add extra support without risking a worse off injury. GL

I find they only help if you fall over at a slow rate. If you fall hard it will just move the pressure point and break your arm. The best plan of action is to learn not to put your hands out when falling. To do this I would literally practice falling. Make sure you fall back to your elbows or forward on your fists. Ride nice and slow then start your turn and keep lifting your edge till you wash out. After a few times it will become natural to your body not to reach out during a fall. Do not practice catching your edge just learn to always lift the edge to much and fall towards the hill compared to not enough and catching your edge. There are also some wrist guards with no plastic piece that can add extra support without risking a worse off injury. GL

thats what i had done is fall forward on my fists....damn hands poked deep enough holes into the wet compact snow creating a mold that i couldnt get out of in time before breaking.....

thats what i had done is fall forward on my fists....damn hands poked deep enough holes into the wet compact snow creating a mold that i couldnt get out of in time before breaking.....

Fall and hit with the biggest body part, cross your arms infront of your chest or grab your self around the torso...try to land on your torso or side or drop to your knees and roll/slide. If falling backward, try to sit down to oneside and let your butt cheek/hip take the impact. Do not put your hands out or try to hit your fist or elbow to the ground like in karate...you want to tuck and roll or tuck and slide.

What type of wrist guard did you use? I suggest getting a better wrist guard... in particular I recommend Level gloves with the built in wrist guard (it is only a one sided wrist guard with a soft, flexible swallow-tail shaped brace, so it is impossible to "fulcrum" the pressure onto your wrist. Below is a image from their website.

In my circle of snowboarder, we have 5 people wearing level gloves for around 5 years now and not a single broken bone (a few years ago I hit a buried rock while dropping a chute off of the Headwall chair at Squaw and fell face first onto a little rock spire, I used my lead hand to protect my face and kind of handplanted over it (trust me it was way less ninja than it sounds). Came away with just a bruised hand (and a torn MCL).